1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer network storage subsystems (i.e., integrated collections of storage controllers and/or host bus adapters; storage devices such as disks, CD ROMs, tapes, etc.; and control software), and more particularly to systems and methods for monitoring and reporting on the input/output activity on local attached storage devices.
2. Related Art
Within a computer system, file performance is a crucially important part of application performance and is often forgotten. Much of the performance bottlenecks involve file input/output (I/O) performance due to extremely frequent access to files.
Because application performance is essential to a computer system's performance, and file I/O performance is an important metric of overall application performance, then effective performance measurement must include file performance. Consequently, if file I/O performance can be increased—given that it is often the performance bottleneck—then better overall application performance will result.
One can simply assume that, for instance, employing a faster disk storage device will increase file I/O performance (i. e., faster file communications). However, there is no way of measuring how much faster, if at all, employing such a storage device will result. That is, there is no way of providing accurate and precise numbers to prove the assumption that employing a faster disk storage device will increase file I/O performance. Thus, system administrators and the like have no way of deciding, justifying or validating whether the added costs of these faster storage devices have any affect. Because better performance usually commands a premium price, it is necessary to have empirical numbers when system administrators have to take such action.
Therefore, given the foregoing, what is needed is a system, method and computer program product for analyzing I/O activity. The system, method and computer program product should be able to monitor I/O activity on local attached storage, provide a management interface to monitor and receive reports on such I/O activity, and thereby allow system administrators to have access to accurate metrics for system resource decision making.